Destined
by yami no dawn
Summary: There's something not right about Ryou. Convinced something has happened to his father, Ryou leaves for Japan where he hopes for answers. His father's gift to him, a golden ring, opens up a pandora's box of change for Ryou. RxB, AU.
1. Prologue

**Destined**

Plot bunny adopted from Cheysuli on aff: "Ryou isn't even human. He's not even from this realm but a 'Realm Beyond the Shadows' Bakura/Ryou"

Warnings: AU, Yaoi (male/male), OOCness (of Yami no Bakura at least XD), unbetaed.

Summary: Ryou Bakura _is different. _Brought up in England, he leaves for Japan on a whim after his father disappears in Egypt. He receives the Millennium Ring and its dark secret with his father's last correspondence. He begins to suspect the ring's power and in his fight against the spirit, secrets of his own past begin to emerge.

**Prologue**

A box dropped onto the mat just inside the door. A slim teenage boy all but flew out of the kitchen, a piece of buttered toast between his lips, almost tripping over himself in his eagerness to reach the parcel. He crouched down to examine the box more closely. The post marks and stamps indicated that this box had travelled from Egypt. When this dawned upon the boy, a grin spread across his pale face and he tore into the package. Shoving his hands inside, he felt something cold against his fingers. Lifting out the shape, he discovered that it was a ring. There was an odd emblem of an eye emblazoned in the centre and the outer circle was fixed with strange arrow shapes. He bit his lip and looked closer, swearing that the metal was heating up under his fingertips. It looked to be made entirely of gold.

Turning back to the box, he discovered a letter lying where the ring had been. Hesitantly, he opened it, leaving the ring settled in his lap.

_My dearest Ryou,_

Ryou blinked back tears. His father did not write often – preferring to call when it was possible. It was not often possible, and he had received no call for almost three weeks. He had an unnerving sense in his gut that something was not right.

_I found this on the dig, in a tomb. I have allowed no-one else to see it. I feel in my heart that this should belong to you, Ryou. It was perhaps incorrect of me to send it without declaring my find, but..._

Ryou looked down at the golden object in his lap. It made him feel a strange quivering in his stomach and he was sure that the metal was getting hotter. What was it?

_I have little time to write, so I will say only this: Take good care of it and take better care of yourself Ryou._

_Your loving father._

His lower lip trembled. His father's job took him away from home far more than Ryou would like. He always made sure that Ryou had enough money to survive, he didn't want for anything, except to spend time with his father.

Clutching the letter and the ring to his heart, he dejectedly shuffled back into the kitchen, wondering if it was worth calling his father's mobile to talk. Feeling heart-breaking loneliness wash through him, he decided that it was worth not eating for a week to pay for the call.

He picked up the phone and dialled the memorised number.

_Ring, ring, ring..._

There was no answer. Worry tightened into a knot in his stomach. There had never been a time when his father had not answered the phone. Biting his lip, he placed the letter and the ring on the counter top.

On the reverse of the letter, he noticed further writing.

A name, an address, and a telephone number.

_Sogoroku Motou, Japan._

Hesitantly, Ryou dialled the strange number, wondering what kind of an answer he would get.

"Moshi moshi, Motou Yugi speaking!"

Was the cheerful Japanese answer. Ryou swallowed the lump in his throat and reached into his head for the Japanese he'd been taught.

"I am R-Un.. Bakura Ryou. May I speak to Motou Sogoroku-san?"

"Hai, one moment please." There was brief silence, before "GRANDPA!!!!! PHONE!"

Ryou found himself smothering a smile.

"Motou Sogoroku. Who is this?"

"My name is Bakura Ryou. I got this number from the back of a letter my father sent."

"I do not know any Bakuras."

"Oh, I'm sorry, his name isn't Bakura. He is McFarin Christian. Please, I can't get through to him. Do you know him?"

"Ah, Christian! He and I met years ago in Egypt! Wonderful young man! Such enthusiasm! He was keeping me updated on his current dig, but I haven't heard from him in almost a month. It's good to hear that he's still OK."

"Well you see, I'm not sure that he is.."

"Why's that son? I'm sure he's just busy."

The reply was too fast for Ryou to swallow. Something twitched in the back of his mind. _He knows something_.

"I'm sure you're right. I'm sorry for bothering you."

"Not a problem."

Dial tone.

Ryou stared at the phone. He glanced at the address on the letter. He had a lot of things to sort out.

Two weeks later saw Ryou standing in Heathrow airport checking in his small suitcase. The ring hung, heavy and reassuring against his chest on a leather thong. He smiled faintly as he handed over his passport to the official.

"Flight number TYO3455 to Tokyo is now boarding."

Ryou took the smallest of glances back as he made his way through the airport. Sogoroku Motou knew something. And Ryou was going to find out what.

* * *

A/N: in the phone conversation, I had the say the names with family name first to show the language change. I also picked a number at random for the flight number. 


	2. Settled

A/N: This is done later than I'd hoped :S. But I've already written half of the next chapter, so that one shouldn't be so long. Sorry for the wait... and the lack of much happening.

I still don't own YGO. Shame isn't it. lol.

* * *

**Chapter 2: Settled**

Ryou had neglected to purchase a return ticket. The moment he landed in Japan, something settled in his heart. It felt familiar, but at the same time, everything was different.

His apartment was small, but clean and furnished. He stashed the money he had taken (as much as he could get his hands on) in a small tin and hid it in the rather unoriginal place of underneath a loose floorboard in his bedroom.

He still had not taken the ring off once.

He had set up the transfer to the local school from England. Moving around a lot due to his father had meant he had become familiar with the system of changing schools. Ryou was independent of his father.

He caught his reflection on the way out of the door in the hall mirror. Pale skin, pale hair, milky, melted chocolate in his eyes and a rather gaudy piece of jewellery hanging about his thin neck. Sogoroku Motou would think he was crazy. Ryou bit his lip. He simply could not bring himself to remove the ring. Sighing, he dropped it down the front of his shirt, flinching at the cold weight against his flesh. He forced a small smile, but it wavered.

The Kame Game Shop. It wasn't big, or glamorous, but this was where the address Ryou had acquired had led him.

"_Sorry, Grandpa is in Egypt. Looking for a friend."_

Instead of coming face to face with the man he was looking for, the house seemed only to be inhabited by a small young-looking boy. He was surprised by the realisation that this boy was the same age as him.

Ryou winced. He couldn't afford to go to _Egypt_.

"Do you know when he'll be back?"

"He never says.. But.. Bak-"

"Ryou." He insisted. There was something odd about being called by his surname.

"Ryou.. Would you like to come in? I- I'll walk to school with you?"

Ryou smiled shyly. "I would like that Yugi."

Ryou waited. He could do nothing else. With Yugi's grandpa in Egypt 'looking for a friend' he could only wait for the old man's return and hope that his father was the one that Sogoroku was looking for. He resigned himself to feeling the frustration of being able to do nothing. The weight of the ring and its coldness against his flesh made him smile. It was becoming something of a new friend.

Perhaps Japan could be his home for a while.

Yugi was tiny. His hair added at least a foot to his height, Ryou was certain. His eyes seemed to betray his thoughts, and Ryou was sure that the small boy was lonely without his grandfather there. But what intrigued him most about Yugi, was his interesting choice in jewellery. He had a necklace with an inverted pyramid pendant around his neck, always. According to Jounochi, Yugi's friend, he hadn't taken it off for over a year. His hand was drawn to the ring. Perhaps... Perhaps they had something in common.

It was late when Ryou returned to his apartment. Yugi and his friends had insisted that they go out for a meal at Burger World then Yugi hadn't let them leave for hours. Ryou decided that he was right in his judgement that Yugi was a little lonely at home.

Yawning and sighing, he dropped his keys on to the bedside table, stripped out of his clothes and crawled into his small single bed. He had thought that worry would not release him into sleep until late into the night, but he was wrong. Within minutes of his head hitting the pillow, the heat of the ring against his chest lulled him to sleep. He had only seconds to consider that the ring had been icy earlier that day.

_A pale figure lurched clumsily down the staircases towards the exit of the apartment block, stumbling every few steps as though unused to walking. Once outside, after fumbling with the door for a good five minutes, his pointed features twisted into a manic, cruel grin. His eyes shone the colour of freshly spilt blood. Against the dark shirt he wore, a golden ring glowed, throwing his features into eerie shadow._

_Apparently now more used to walking, he strode down the silent, dark street._

_After all that time locked away, he was going to have some fun._

Ryou awoke, freezing, his pillow reeking of rotting food. Upon sitting up, he discovered that it was not a pillow at all, but a large bag of household rubbish. The realisation that he was not in his apartment, where he had fallen asleep came over him. Instead, he was in a narrow, covered alley. He shuddered in horror as he scrambled away from his sleeping spot.

_Sleepwalking? Surely not._

The heat against his chest was becoming agony. He pulled it from underneath his shirt (when had he put that on?) and in a fit of fear, threw it to the ground. Shakily, he unbuttoned his shirt, begging all the gods he could think of that he'd imagined that intense, burning pain. But alas, it was not so. His flesh was burned and raw and in the shape of a ring.

He bit back a sharp sob.

Just what _was _that thing?

Ryou was horrified to find himself itching to feel its weight around his neck once more. He vowed to leave the disgusting thing there, in the alley, where it could do no harm. Purposefully, he stepped out of the alley into the grey pre dawn light. He did not register that he was already wearing the ring until he reached his apartment and saw it, settled over the burn, cold again.

_**You don't get rid of me that easily beautiful one.**_


End file.
